D5300 GPS problem

d.kilshtein

Senior Member
Ok, some update.

I went out to a totally open field and after a few moments I got a FIX.
I went from location A to location B in certain way (not just in a straight line).

When I got back home and looked at the geo tag on the photos I thought the GPS location was not accurate but when I inspected the geo tags closely and I saw that the location wasn't inaccurate. The location was exactly where I was but with a delay.

Here is the strange thing that looks like a bug in the firmware logic (I have a LOT of experience writing software for GPS management):
When I got to location B I took a few photos and the few first photos had location A in them and more recent photos had location B. when I went back, from B to A, and I took a few more photos at location A, the GPS tag showed location B. it seem the geo tag is written to the picture not from the last reading from the GPS sensor but from a pre stored location in memory (i.e. "lastGoodFix"). It also seems that the refresh rate of the actual GPS readings is very low (probably to save power).

Here is another thing that may point to another problem. When I was at location B some of the pictures appeared as location A (or on the way from location A to B).
While at location B my photos tags appeared as AAAABBBAABBB.
The first four A are probably the result of a slow update as I mentioned earlier but the two A in the middle look like it's another bug in the firmware logic (something to have with the storing the last fix position). Maybe the GPS signal was low the tag was written from a pre stored data…

Anyway, since both issues look like a bug, there is a hope they will be fixed in the next firmware update.
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
Interesting results and thanks for sharing!

I just joined and should have the D5300 in my hands by the end of this week, so I'll do similar testing to see if I can reproduce. This is my first camera with built in GPS, but I've done geo tagging using external Garmin GPS units with previous point-and-shoot cameras, so I'm curious to see if my results are similar.
 

d.kilshtein

Senior Member
Thanks,
Do you have any results yet? I did the same test with 2 other cameras with a built in GPS. They both weren’t perfect but the phenomena I described is appears only with the D5300.
 

John Braden

Senior Member
Hi there and welcome!

I too had problems trying to get a fix and read up on the problems. I wasn't satisfied with the results and decided to get a Geotagger N3-c by Solmeta. I was disappointed with the idea of the Nikon one not working properly on my then-upcoming trip to Japan and I decided to get the external unit instead. I was totally blown away by it. It works perfectly, even inside high-flying aircraft.

I know it's not pertaining to the D5300's GPS, but I thought I'd share what I did.
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
Thanks,
Do you have any results yet? I did the same test with 2 other cameras with a built in GPS. They both weren’t perfect but the phenomena I described is appears only with the D5300.

I missed this response while I was out on vacation, but yes, I had similar problems with the GPS on my D5300 as well. It's disappointing since that was one of the features that drove me to the D5300 in the first place, but it does not look like it will be reliable at all. Even in an open field, GPS connectivity was very sporadic and would come and go.
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
Hi there and welcome!

I too had problems trying to get a fix and read up on the problems. I wasn't satisfied with the results and decided to get a Geotagger N3-c by Solmeta. I was disappointed with the idea of the Nikon one not working properly on my then-upcoming trip to Japan and I decided to get the external unit instead. I was totally blown away by it. It works perfectly, even inside high-flying aircraft.

I know it's not pertaining to the D5300's GPS, but I thought I'd share what I did.

Does the Solmeta integrate with the D5300?

Unfortunately, I didn't get to test before my trip, but yeah ... the GPS data from the internal GPS receiver is not reliable with the D5300.
 

John Braden

Senior Member
Does the Solmeta integrate with the D5300?

Unfortunately, I didn't get to test before my trip, but yeah ... the GPS data from the internal GPS receiver is not reliable with the D5300.
The Solmeta uses the micro-USB port on the D5300 as the source of power and comes with a hot-shoe and clip-on connector to attach to the camera or strap. I use the hot-shoe because the tagger also shows compass direction of the shot and attaching it to the strap may not give proper compass heading.

When you try to use the in-camera menu to activate the GPS, the camera will not "see" the Solmeta unit as a GPS system and you may think it's not writing the geo-coordinates in the EXIF, but it does. When you use the NX2 software that comes with the camera, you'll see the pins on the map and the proper lat/lon/alt.
 

d.kilshtein

Senior Member
I think a lot of people bought this model because of the GPS (I know I did).
Since it seems that the problem is in the firmware, I hope Nikon will justify their reputation and release a fix...
 

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
I know it's anecdotal information, but the GPS seemed to work better for me yesterday while walking around after having applied the latest GPS update file to the camera. It still lost location lock several times, frequently right after taking a picture, but also seemed to reacquire the location lock much quicker than it did prior to any updated.

I'm like you, this leads me to think it *could* possibly be something that can be fixed via firmware (hopefully it's not a hardware flaw), so I'm holding out hope for a fix through that mechanism. It worked well enough that I'm not looking at external GPS receivers at the moment, but time will tell.
 

Hayder

New member
Hi
after more than a year , is there any GPS improve or the same problem , GPS fix delay !!
thanks
 
Last edited:

RocketCowboy

Senior Member
Hi
after more than a year , is there any GPS improve or the same problem , GPS fix delay !!
thanks

Applying the GPS update file has been the biggest improvement I've seen with the D5300's GPS. I haven't used it as much lately, since adding a D7100 to my camera bag, but the last time I used the D5300 it still continues to sync up much quicker than it originally did.

If I remember right, the GPS update file was supposed to be good for 90-days and was recommended to update regularly, but I have not applied any updates since the first one. I'll test again this weekend since I have the D5300 with me on this trip.
 

meteoloco

New member
Hello everybody,

I purchased a D5300 just a week ago. All good so far except GPS. As all users noted, sometimes the GPS is not locked when shooting a picture. Is a slow/bad GPS, even with assisted AGPS files.

But I found a solution that is perfect for me and do not need to buy an external GPS. I use my smartphone. Their GPS is far better than D5300 one. Let me explain how.

There are a lot of apps for IOS and Android to log tracks. After some tests I use 'oruxmaps' . When I want to take pictures or start a travel I active the track logging in my smartphone. It spend very few of my smartphone battery.

Then we can take the photos we want, no worry about GPS being locked in D5300. Once we finished the photo session we stop the track logging. Save the pictures in a PC. Also save the smartphone track. I set my oruxmaps to log tracks in GPX format.

Then, there are some apps to extract GPS info from the tracks and insert it in the metadata of our pictures. They use time interpolation and the exact time our D5300 shoot the pictures. I am a Linux user and use a script based in a swiss knife for all these tasks : 'exiftool'

In a click I got all my pictures properly geotagged.

Yes, I know It could be a complicated proccess for some users, but if works for me. And note it works for other digital cameras without GPS. Just we only need the camera clock well set and a smartphone. In case of D5300 there is no problem because its clock synced when the GPS is locked (an option in menu to achieve this).

Hope it can help.
 
Any gps will find it difficult to lock if it is on the move ...thats the nature of the beast..try getting your car GPS to get an initial lock whilst you are on the move.....and of course you keep waving the antenna about so its very confusing for the poor thing .....
 

cwgrizz

Senior Member
Challenge Team
@meteoloco, to add to your method, may I add it is a good idea to take a photo of your phone time at the start of the trip. Then when linking your photos to coordinates, you will be able to sync your camera time with your phone time using the difference offset. From reports I have read, a pretty good program for tagging photos using your method is Geosetter (Freeware).

I have only used the GPS on the D5300 one time to see if it worked. It was after updating the GPS file from Nikon. It worked, but didn't always tag the photos. As was mentioned earlier, it takes time for the GPS to lock in. I have a pretty nice GPS unit and it takes some time to lock in on coordinate also. It is the nature of the beast.
 

meteoloco

New member
cwgrizz , Geosetter is based on 'exiftool' and have no version for linux . This is why I use my own script that use, of course, exiftool.

Horoscope Fish, as far as I know the firmware AGPS update is actually a file with orbital parameters for GPS satellites during next 14 days. It has to be refreshed before their limit date. This is the rule of Assisted GPS, i.e, to provide where the satellites are expected to be when set the GPS on.
 

Horoscope Fish

Senior Member
Horoscope Fish, as far as I know the firmware AGPS update is actually a file with orbital parameters for GPS satellites during next 14 days. It has to be refreshed before their limit date. This is the rule of Assisted GPS, i.e, to provide where the satellites are expected to be when set the GPS on.
Whatever it is, I can tell you it *definitely* improved the GPS performance of my girlfriend's D5300.
....
 
Top